


Crossing Wires

by BlameMyMuses



Series: Ghosts in these Machines [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Non-Sgrub AU, helmsmen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:25:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3840442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlameMyMuses/pseuds/BlameMyMuses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A helmsman is decommissioned too soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossing Wires

You've been helming for nine sweeps when you are abruptly decommissioned. It's thirty sweeps ahead of schedule. 

You're not in any especial need of maintenance, you're not damaged...

You're drifting. 

You're pretty sure you're supposed to be docked for decommissioning, but it's not like anyone ever gave you actual protocols to follow, just orders. 

Hours later and your crew is no longer aboard. Someone is entering the helmsblock anyway. You watch, passive, as he types in key commands with rapidfire fingers, and it occurs to you that, actually, you recognize this troll. His horns are distinctive, and the lazy curve of his spine is an almost familiar sight. 

**Sollux Captor?** You have it on all your view screens. He sees it and pauses.

“You're going to have to use your words, helmsman,” he says. The lisp is a surprise, but you try to do as he says. The connection is slow and grating, but eventually you remember how to work teeth and tongue. 

“Sollux Captor?” you ask again, and he smirks. 

“The one and only. Are you ready to be decommissioned, Helmsman?”

You don't know. And then it's too late, codes are running, and you feel your own body for the first time in sweeps, and everything is a wash of white and pain.

**Decommission complete.**

You're a troll again. It's been...nights, you don't know how many, but you're inside a spaceship now, not one with it, and Captor is sitting a ways away, psionics crackling, like he's navigating, but he's not plugged in and—?

“You're awake?” 

You don't jump. It's no longer an ingrained response to being startled. But you do focus back in, and realize he's watching you back. 

“...awake,” you acknowledge. Your voice is rusty.

“I'm looking for someone,” he says. 

“Yes,” you say. You know. Everyone who's met her knows. She tells them all, and imbeds it deep, below the conditioning, and you remember, just like you think you might remember your own name, soon. You've forgotten the function of a smile, but not the emotion behind one. 

“Aradia is looking for you too,” you say.


End file.
